


Sleeping Soundly

by justanoutlaw



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Episode: s01e07 A Heart is a Lonely Hunter, F/M, Lion Tattoo, Nightmares, Sleep Paralysis, mentions of marital rape, s01e11: Fruit of the Poisonous Tree
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 14:14:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16389239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justanoutlaw/pseuds/justanoutlaw
Summary: It takes 26 years for Regina to finally get a restful night's sleep.





	Sleeping Soundly

**Author's Note:**

> For Day 2 of SpookyOQ: Trapped.
> 
> Possible trigger warnings: Very brief mentions of rape. This also focuses on sleep paralysis, which is something I suffer from so I know it can be hard to read about.

Regina had never gotten a good night’s sleep throughout her life. When she was an infant, she kept the night nurse up and Cora would always tell tales of still being able to here her wails in the opposite wing. As a child, she suffered from nightmares and by her teen years, she hated sleep all together. Things only got worse when she married Leopold and found herself pretending to sleep so maybe he’d leave her alone for the evening, maybe she’d get lucky and he’d be too tired to force her to have sex.

 

Yes, sleep was not Regina’s friend. Which was why it was made all the more hard when she began to suffer from sleep paralysis after she killed her husband.

 

In between her conscious state and her nightmares, Regina would find herself paralyzed in her bed. She couldn’t move a muscle, she couldn’t speak or even breathe. She was trapped with her eyes open, forced to watch dangerous creatures move around her. Sometimes, they’d sit on her chest. Others, they’d dance around.

 

Her magic mirror explained it was the price of what she had done to both him and the king. She was free of them both now, but it didn’t change that she would never have a peaceful night’s rest. Regina simply couldn’t accept that. She was getting everything she wanted, she was days away from her revenge on Snow White to be enacted. She wasn’t going to spend another night feeling the way she did, so she turned to Rumpelstiltskin and asked him for help. In exchange for her agreeing to help him with a task, he gave her a potion.

 

“Take this before bed and all of your problems will disappear,” he told her.

 

So, the night she banished Snow White from her kingdom and sent the huntsman after her, Regina took the potion. She didn’t dream that night. However, as her brain shifted from sleep to awake, she saw the monsters began to appear again. She was unable to move, one of them sitting on her chest, nearly taunting her.

 

In the glow of the moonlight, she watched as he door was pushed open and a strange man came running in. With his sword, he slayed each and every monster. Regina couldn’t thank him, she still couldn’t move, even after the demon fell off her chest and onto the floor below. All she could see was the familiar lion tattoo on the man’s arm.

 

This was the one she had left behind in the tavern.

 

Regina shot up in bed moments later, looking around. With a flick of her wrist, a candle lit beside her and she looked around the room, searching for the man….but he was gone. She wondered if it was a dream or if for once, it had all been real.

 

All she hoped…was that one day the man with the lion tattoo would return to her.


End file.
